Education for our Children. Giving them the Edge
There is an ever increasing distortion of facts and misleading information around food and diet around today. This is distinct from legitimate differing viewpoints.
But, before I come to the basics, the foundations on which individuals can build their choices, a few words on why education is particularly important at this time: several restrictive diets, as opposed to balanced, are making one of their cyclical reappearances. They come in and out of fashion for no valid reason. Examples are; low carbohydrate; high protein; ketogenic:? An absolute basic for youngsters to know is that glucose (a sugar) is the main fuel of the body. An essential. So vital that if it is not easily available from carbohydrate it will be produced from protein (a process called gluconeogenesis). Protein will be taken not only from that consumed, but from that present in muscles (of which the heart is the largest). The redundant nitrogen has to be disposed of, extra work for the kidneys. Ketones are produced in what is called, in lay terms, a starvation diet. A short-term, emergency fuel. No replacement for glucose.
Education in the (many) sciences related to food and diet should begin early in schools. The more that is taught and learned, the less will be the influence of biased or misleading information. (I still come across people who think of cholesterol as a type of fat! * Cholesterol is in fact a useful compound, needed in most cells. Balance, as always, is the key word.)
Possibly this may not be the preferred method for all teachers, but my preference is for introducing the periodic table – the alphabet of the language of science, and life – as soon as possible. And to relate the foods to elements: carbohydrates, fats, alcohol and proteins all compounds of the same elements; these are carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. (Protein also has nitrogen, which allows protein to have additional uses.)
The elements are the same in all foods; it’s the proportions of the elements that make a difference, just as the proportions of ingredients can make different cakes (or something more savoury).
It is but a small step to relate the balance of foods, expressed on the healthy plate, to the balance our bodies try to maintain (homeostasis). If we have a lot of one thing our bodies will try to convert it to another. Micronutrients (fruit and vegetables are rich sources) help trigger and regulate the conversions:
It follows that if we eat a balanced diet, our bodies do not have to work quite so hard to achieve that inner balance. Balance is beautiful not boring. (The more advanced pupil will be able to compare homeostasis with la Chatalier’s principle in chemistry, and to appreciate that what happens in vitro may not happen in vivo.)
*Another small step identifies that the so-called good cholesterol and so-called bad cholesterol is actually the same cholesterol: the same (sugar, alcohol) compound but travelling around the body together with different proportions of fatty acids and proteins (in the form of lipoproteins). The different proportions affect the speed the lipoproteins travel. The slower ones might get left behind in the arteries. (Here, the more advanced pupil can relate to the higher density of protein, polarity, to the electrical currents in physics, progress to the gut-brain axis, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence.)
Level of simplification will vary, and this suggestion is only one approach that can be used, of course. But we do need to find ways to engage with children to have a broader understanding of healthy eating and healthy lifestyles in general.
There is more wonder in the complexities of life when there is less ignorance.